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lordgalvar wrote:It is due to the private carrier having to pay imports like Nora said and also to pay the salary of the customs officer they hire.

However, there ongoing litigation to take down the "brokerage" fees and they are very inconsistent. They are also sometimes billed via the shipping institution instead of the delivering. For example, a FedEx franchise in Italy is technically a different corporation than FedEx Ground, FedEx Home, FedEx International, etc. Even if FedEx home delivers, it may be that original office that billed you and the delivering company will have no record of any charges (since it is an Italian company). DHL works the same way....like the charge may come from DHL UK, not DHL USA. It gets really confusing.

I believe the US government does not tax consumer goods not meant for resale (i.e. you aren't importing large stock)...Because they don't even have a national tax as it is. We already pay for the customs employees with taxes, so their function is to work for us (until we become a usage fee based land). Since EMS is a direct contractor/service provider with USPS, they get to work under these rules too.

FedEx, UPS, DHL, cargo shipment companies (Merrick, boats) etc are all working for profit, so they have to pay for their service and use of customs. They pass on a charge to the recipient. But, they have been adding brokerage fees as a typical way to get a little extra cash to slash their margins of the extra overhead of having to pay for customs officers. The crap part is that they got in a habit of sending a bill USPS instead of informing the recipient upon delivery (probably because sometimes they delivering company has no idea or haven't been billed themselves..no record yet)...so they rely on traditional mail or you signing up with their electronic billing service...neither of which is reliable (I had three charges last year....two of which I never received a bill for and hadto spend hours on the phone finding the actual billing department/corporation/subdivision).

DHL was the worst...they can't find a damn thing and there is no way to find a bill that has been sent to you unless you have the invoice number of the actual paper bill...the tracking, your address, nothing is linked to that invoice via normal "help lines". There is a second DHL corporation that is not related informational wise that does all the accounts (with no communication between the two). It was a giant mess. They got the point and only do COD now, which is good.

Anyway, the brokerage fees are what are stupid...they can be up to 50% of the items value...($100 pedal got me a $40 customs charge via fedex...bullshit).

I don't use them anymore....any of the private carriers. They do horrible work, damage items, and overcharge. (UPS broke 4 faucets, three of which where replacements for the original they broke in transit and they admired too it....FedEx admitted to breaking a beta lead by throwing it over a fence once...they shrug their shoulders and say, "we charge for convenience. not safety...plus your account ain't keeping us afloat"...which basically what I got told by the UPS distro in LA///and something similar to the FedEx in Bakersfield).

Our tile came via a private shipping company on a boat. The customs charge was included in our purchase price...that is the way it should be. These dumb companies like FedEx should include it as part of shipping costs like EMS and USPS do to some degree...but then they couldn't add brokerage.